Gastr Del Sol
Upgrade & Afterlife

THE REVIEW

I won't retell the tedious history of post-rock from Louisville. Because, let's admit it, if the name David Grubbs doesn't ring any bells for you, then I certainly don't recommend starting to get to know him from here.

Louisville-labeled post-rock, as we were saying. David Grubbs, as we were saying. But not only that: also Jim O'Rourke, I might add!

For those who know what I'm talking about, there's probably no need to add anything more. And even if you've never listened to the album in question, you can easily imagine what to expect.

For everyone else

The Gastr del Sol project was born from the mind of guitarist David Grubbs around the early '90s. Grubbs already had a "name" (as they say), having already been in several groups, all more or less seminal:

• the inexplicably legendary Squirrel Bait
• the all-too-explicably legendary Bitch Magnet
• and the often ignored Bastro

In short, even though he never made it to the Land of Spiders, he was already an important name in that scene, with its main flag bearers being Slint, his former colleague Brian McMahan's band.

Done and dusted, good old David decides that he could add another group to the list of more or less seminal ones he's been part of: and so he founds Gastr del Sol in Chicago. And if Chicago makes you think of Tortoise, I tell you that indeed, in the first incarnation of this musical project, there are also some members of the future post-rock giant. And I have to tell you this because, all in all, in Serpentine Similar, it could have just been Grubbs and no one would have noticed: the music is ultra-minimal, autistic, convoluted. However, his way of playing (guitar and piano) is unique: it takes really just a few notes to recognize him immediately and indisputably.

Shortly after, a partnership with Jim O'Rourke (another one with a rather long curriculum) is born: noise artist, ambient-alist, post-ist, art-ist (?).

The Gastr del Sol thus become a duo: in the sense that this time the personality of Grubbs' partner in crime is felt. It's felt in the silences, in the noises, in a slightly more sideral autism.

Upgrade & Afterlife belongs precisely to this period of Gastr del Sol's life and is, in my opinion, an excellent synthesis of the musical approaches of the two guys mentioned ad nauseam in the previous lines.

Our Exquisite Replica of "Eternity : a long march of rattles and crackling sounds that explodes into classicism for clarinet and orchestra. It's a hypothetical soundtrack. It's Jim

Rebecca Sylvester: here is finally Grubbs' guitar. An unexpectedly "choral" and melodic ending that heralds the (so to speak) explosion of colors of the band's future last album

The Sea Incertain : an icy theme at the piano. A host of noises that glitch and disturb the listener in a slow climax

Hello Spiral : another piece where O'Rourke's presence is distinctly perceivable. A very noisy intro gives way to an unsettling silence. Some hints of singing, then a long procession of increasingly rich sounds and arrangements accompany an anemic guitar arpeggio.

The Relay : perhaps the most melodic piece in the traditional sense of the term (again on the piano). UFO silences as if they were raining.

Crappie Tactics: a nursery rhyme. A joke like there were also in Serpentine Similar

Dry Bones in the Valley (I Saw the Light Come Shining 'Round and 'Round): John Fahey with a musical moment similar to that of Hello Spiral but with violin.

So what to say about this little disc? For genre lovers, for the curious. An album that, taken at the wrong time, feels like an anvil on your balls. Something that is now far from post-hardcore and that frighteningly approaches the avant-garde of classical music, atonal music. An interesting journey.